LeBron is rapidly becoming the biggest draw in basketball. The Kobe/Shaq rivalry probably still overtakes him (ratings-wise), but I can't think of anybody else who currently has more box office appeal. My favorite series during the '06 Playoffs was Cleveland versus Washington. And 90% of it was because of LeBron.

He'll eventually rake in more cash for the NBA than any other player (hell, he's practically already doing it). For that reason, he should be paid the most. I got no gripe with this.

It is good to have employees on roughly the same money but when one guy is the reason why the company is making alot of money, he has a right to more money by the law of averages. The nba would not be so well off with Lebron James right now and he should get some of the money.

#32 wrote:LeBron is rapidly becoming the biggest draw in basketball. The Kobe/Shaq rivalry probably still overtakes him (ratings-wise), but I can't think of anybody else who currently has more box office appeal. My favorite series during the '06 Playoffs was Cleveland versus Washington. And 90% of it was because of LeBron.

He'll eventually rake in more cash for the NBA than any other player (hell, he's practically already doing it). For that reason, he should be paid the most. I got no gripe with this.

I think Wade can surpass him if he keeps winning at this rate and Lebron gets stuck in mediocrity (due to his team, not himself). Of course, that's a big if, as Miami has an old roster on several key points.

What I mean is that those contracts are given to proven winners, so, even tho their NBA contracts will be the same, his economic appeal will rely on how they do in the league. Wade will get an even bigger contract if he gets more titles than Lebron.

Yes... but Wade (whether or not people will admit this) is gonna have a lot harder of a time winning championships without Shaq, no matter how good he is. At the moment, Wade has a much better team than LeBron. I think it's not a stretch to say that James would probably be doing just as well (if not better) with Wade's sort of talent around him.

LeBron is the man everyone would expect to be the 2000 version of the late 80's-90's Michael Jordan. But unforutnately, it's Wade. He's done much Jordan like things. Sure, LeBron has done a hellauva things and they were sure damn impressive what he's performed only 3 years into the league only being especially since he came out of HS but Wade has shown the potential to become MJ's heir apparent. We can't blame LeBron though for not winning championships yet, Wade has the better team. But after what LJ experienced in this years playoffs, he's experienced what MJ had to go through so how both Wade's and James' career shape out will be a ride.

Basically, it's indisputable that lebron is a better player (he won 50 games with a team with Zyrunas ilgauskas and the cancer as the only good contributors. Wade had shaq, toine, zo, payton, jwill, haslem, posey, who were all, say what you want about them, net positives. you can only say gooden, Z, and maybe hughes were net positives for lebron) but there will always be people who think Wade is better because he has a ring, just like there will always be players who parade russell as greater than wilt. It's a flawed logic but unfortunately there are a lot of bball fans who think that (especially shaq fans) so I think that many of the shaq fans will eventually transfer their allegiance to Wade if he wins it all again.

rsxracer wrote:LeBron is the man everyone would expect to be the 2000 version of the late 80's-90's Michael Jordan. But unforutnately, it's Wade. He's done much Jordan like things. Sure, LeBron has done a hellauva things and they were sure damn impressive what he's performed only 3 years into the league only being especially since he came out of HS but Wade has shown the potential to become MJ's heir apparent. We can't blame LeBron though for not winning championships yet, Wade has the better team. But after what LJ experienced in this years playoffs, he's experienced what MJ had to go through so how both Wade's and James' career shape out will be a ride.

that's the thing about wade, he hasn't shown he's anything but an heir apparent to MJ. That's what stmied VC, KB8, Tmac, etc. Lebron is a guy who is showing himself as sui generis already and will be considered the statistically greatest player since wilt even if he never improves (assuming he doesn't get injured).

tHe_pEsTiLeNcE wrote:It's a flawed logic but unfortunately there are a lot of bball fans who think that (especially shaq fans) so I think that many of the shaq fans will eventually transfer their allegiance to Wade if he wins it all again.

Not me; I place Wilt above Russell because his stats are undoubtably better. When you have a case where stats a virtually identical (like Hakeem and Shaq), you pick the guy with the jewlery because he got it done.

But, as far as the allegience transfering to Wade, there will be none of that. I, personally, think Wade is as helpless as Kobe without Shaq.

Kobe was ALWAYS second fiddle in the finals series when the Lakers won the 3 championships. Wade was by far the #1 guy in the finals series against the Mavs! This shows that the two are not the same and that Wade is a big time player more so than Kobe! Wade was by far better than Shaq even in the regular season, something Kobe never did

A lotta LA fans would argue with you. My neighbor in San Jose was a native of Los Angeles, and he was always talking about how much more valueable Kobe was to the Lakers than Shaq. Shaq pulled the team; but Kobe made the big shots, scored the most points, and made the big plays... just like Wade.

Shaq scored more points in every season he was with Kobe except the last, where Kobe was second in scoring to Iverson. In the finals series, Shaq was always much more dominant than Kobe, which is why he was always the MVP